The Call Of Shadows

Chapter Twelve

Mynn's eyes snapped open in the darkness and the safety of her room. But it didn't feel safe- something was wrong. She cautiously sat up in her bed and lit an oil lamp with shaking hands. She put her feet onto the cool stone floor beneath her and peered around the room, carefully checking every corner before sighing and resigning to her windowsill to look at the dim moon obscured by fog. For the past several nights she had been having a lot of trouble sleeping. She tried to attribute it to her mother's continued absence, but she had a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach that insisted it was something more. The silence was deafening. Although it was early spring the crickets had not quite awoken from their slumber, and the ocean was too far away to take comfort in it's dull roar. On the occasions she had gone to visit the southern coast it had become an ever present lullaby. She turned back to her bed once more to try and return to sleep, and froze- dropping the lamp, only dimly aware of it's shattering.

A shadow crouched over her still form on the mattress...a writhing, coiling darkness that barely had a shape of its own. How was she awake?? What was it doing to her?? Oh God, she thought, I'm going to die, and my mother will have no idea what happened to me. She closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate and shot up back in bed, heart racing and throat nearly closed. She grasped at her throat and clambered for the door, making as much noise as she could. She needed help but she could feel her chest tightening by the second! She fumbled for the door handle and felt it mercifully falling open at her touch. As she raced into the hallway Seflek skidded around a corner and screamed at her, "GET DOWN!" She didn't hesitate- there wasn't time to before his fire came hurtling towards her, sizzling and popping with an angry heat. It slammed into the creature that had been feeding on her just a minute before. Her oxygen deprived brain couldn't make sense of what she was seeing...it still existed? It hadn't been a dream?

As she slumped onto the floor, slowly but surely succumbing to the darkness around her she managed to pull up the last reserves of her strength and call up the water from both within and around her, and direct it to put out the fire that had started in her room. Something inside of her rested as the magic was released, but she had no idea how to describe exactly what it was. All she knew was that it felt good, and satisfied. She wanted to ask Seflek about it, but already the sounds had faded and the last thing she saw was Seflek's concerned face, and the remnants of the shadow retreating.

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Bagaeth and Salwein were well on their way back to the capitol when they decided to rest for a few hours before dawn. The forest around them was already beginning to wake, and it wouldn't be long before the desperate shrill of hungry birds would start. They had to rest while they could. Salwein lowered himself onto the bedroll he had brought and looked up at the stars disappearing above him. "Do you know why I was so angry before?" He asked Bagaeth, turning his head to stare at him. "No. Although I can guess, we never talked about it." He smiled sadly, "We never had reason to. You know as well as I that I was in denial about being born an Elder to begin with. I didn't think I was capable." Bagaeth chuckled to himself, "Yeah, and that lasted what? All of three hundred years? You were an expert by the time you went to-" He hesitated, unsure if he should continue. "You know. The place beyond the seas."

Salwein gazed back up at the stars as they spoke, unable to look his old friend in the eye. Sadness colored his voice just a shade above a whisper as he explained. "I was angry because everyone was asking me to be strong, and solitary. I was angry because at the time I saw it as my life being taken from me, but I never understood how much life I never would have seen had I not lived so long." Bagaeth stayed silent as Salwein collected his thoughts. As the seconds turned to minutes, the world began to brighten around them and their breath began to ease into a deep, calming rhythm. "I wish I could have said goodbye." He said simply. "I never should have come home." Bagaeth didn't open his eyes as he responded. "If you hadn't come home, the war would have been over before it began. You and I both know it. Now rest, Elder. There isn't much time until daylight." He could only nod, for even as he spoke he felt the edges of sleep pulling him into dreams.